Robert William Hansen, painter, muralist, printmaker, sculptor, and educator, was born in Osceola, Nebraska in 1924. He served in the U.S. Army from 1943 to 1945. In December 1945, he was transferred to Munich and assigned to the Regierungsbezirk Oberbayern Section of the Office of Military Government for Bavaria under the direction of Monuments Man Capt. Jonathan T. Morey. Stationed in Munich, Hansen worked as part of the motor pool delivering works of art found in the field to various collecting points. He was involved in the transport of the collection of Martin Bormann found at Berchtesgaden, a collection of Russian icons looted by the Schwarzhuber brothers, and multiple truckloads of works of art and other cultural objects belonging to the Russian state museums. Hansen was redeployed in February 1946.

Following his return home to the United States, Hansen received two Bachelor’s degrees from the University of Nebraska. He earned a Maestro de Bellas Artes (M.F.A.) from the Escuela de Bellas Artes in San Miguel de Allende, Mexico in 1949, and later returned to Mexico in 1953 to study at the University de Michoacan in Morelia. There, he studied mural painting under the Mexican muralist Alfredo Zalce, and was soon commissioned to paint three murals of his own in public buildings in Mexico. The muralist David Alfaro Siqueiros introduced Hansen to using paint made for appliances and automobiles and he became known for his use of industrial paint on panels. His technique utilized Duco lacquer and the subject of his paintings was most often stylistically illustrated body parts.

Hansen taught briefly at Bradley University and the University of Hawaii before beginning a long career as a professor at Occidental College in 1955, which culminated in his retirement as Professor Emeritus in 1987. During his tenure as professor, Hansen travelled widely, including a period from 1961 to 1962 when he studied art in India and Southeast Asia as both a Guggenheim fellow and a Fulbright fellow.

His work was exhibited in the Carnegie Biennial in 1961; “Art U.S.A.: The Figure” at the Museum of Modern Art, New York; and at the Whitney Museum in 1972. Hansen is represented in the permanent collections of the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York; and the National Gallery of Art and the Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington, D.C.

An avid birder and conservationist in his later years, Hansen became active with the Carpinteria Creek Commission in Carpinteria, California. For his work to conserve the wetlands near his home, the Carpinteria city council named the Bob Hansen Creeks Preservation Program in his honor in 2011.

Robert William Hansen passed away on 10 February 2013 in Carpinteria, California.

Reference: Monuments Men and Women Foundation